The Era of Gold

The slow march toward corruption continues… When Brazilian businessman João Havelange took control of FIFA in 1974 it was still a modest operation, with six permanent staff and virtually nothing in the bank. By the time he retired in 1998, the soccer organization had $4 billion in the bank. But the man who built FIFA into a multi-billion dollar marketing machine would also be implicated in a string of scandals involving millions in bribes and kickbacks. Worse, Havelange had a nasty habit of cozying up to gangsters and dictators, and choosing profit over human rights.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Let me explain what you'll be hearing in today's episode.
FIFA was founded to spread the game of soccer around
the world. It's made up of representatives from member nations
whose primary responsibility is to organize World Cup tournaments. So
you might ask, how did this noble nonprofit turn into
a money making machine that invited so much corruption. Well,

(00:25):
color TV and colorful commercials played a big role in
that money part, But the corruption is a more complicated story,
and as always, it starts at the top. I'm Connor Powell.
This is episode six, the Era of Gold. At first glance,

(00:48):
the piece of paper found by investigators in Rio de
Jannarro appeared to be nothing more than a letter of
reference for a friend. The handwritten note, dated October was
tatterned and worn. Its composition wasn't particularly articulate nor eloquent,
but the gist of what it said was pretty straightforward.
Castor Day and Drag is my friend and as a

(01:10):
loyal family man who loves sports. Let me repeat that
to you because it's important to our story. Castor Day
and Drag is my friend and as a loyal family
man who loves sports. The letter concluded by saying and
I authorized Castor Day and Drag to use this statement
as he deems appropriate. To investigators who found the letter

(01:32):
in seven years after it was written. The intent of
the author's statement was crystal clear. I'm important, don't mess
with my friend. The implications of this simple message were
far reaching, not only in Brazil but around the world.

(01:56):
You see, Castor wasn't just a humble family man who
likes sports. In the nineteen eighties and nineteen nineties, he
was one of Brazil's most famous people, with an electric
smile and a flashy style that resembled a television game
show host. Castor was known as the King of Carnival,
the Pulse Satian, gyrating and seductive Brazilian festival held every

(02:20):
year before the start of the Christian period of Lent.
Castor had a samba school that had won five Carnival
titles between ninety nine and that's a really big deal
in Brazil. He also owned one of Rio's top soccer teams,
Banou Atletica, and he ran the incredibly popular and illegal

(02:45):
lottery game known in Brazil as Jogo Debishu. Castor was
a businessman, a bookie, and a mobster. It was estimated
his gambling operation brought in more than a billion dollars
a year. He used his control of the illegal lottery
to launder massive amounts of cash for criminal gangs, not
only in Brazil, but also outside of the country, including

(03:08):
Colombia's notorious Cali Cartel, the Sicilian Mafia, and some shady
Israeli gangsters you've never heard of. You see, Castor was
known as one of South America's top mobsters and most
dangerous men, and investigators were closing in on them. So
in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo reported on April that

(03:30):
Brazilian investigators had found the seven year old letter of recommendation.
Eyebrows went up in Brazil and they went up around
the soccer world when it was announced that the person
acting as Caster's moral guaranteur it was none other than
FIFA's president jo Hablanche. To explain the note in how

(03:51):
Jao Habalang came to be tied up with a gangster
of Caster's reputation, you need to go back to a
time when FIFA put the non in nonprofit. The V
four financial report hand delivered to FIFA's executive committee. It

(04:12):
was much like the soccer organization's outgoing president, Stanley Rolse organized,
detailed and brutally transparent, it was also somewhat unimpressive. The
last report produced by the Stadgi Englishman before relinquishing the
FIFA presidency declared the nineteen seventy four World Cup the
most successful tournament ever and said that ticket sales from

(04:35):
the World Cup games made up the overwhelming majority of
FIFA's revenues, amounting to a nineteen million dollar profit for
the organization, meaning despite its solid success, FIFA had yet
to really tap the massive potential from television and other
marketing opportunities, and since FIFA's only revenue producing event was

(04:56):
the World Cup, the entire nineteen million dollar profit FIFA
made that year would be needed to prepare for the
next World Cup and to sustain FIFA's non World Cup
year operations. FIVA was attention rich. It's games were watched
all around the globe, but it was cash poor, with
very little money in the bank. Today FIFA is rolling

(05:20):
in money. I want you to listen to how former
presidents set Ladder described FIFA's financial health when defending its
nonprofit status back in two thousand and twelve. Yeah, a
nonprofit organization and we have to remain a nonprofit organism,
a nonprofit with over a billion dollars in the bank. Yeah,
but the this is a deserve. Thirty eight years after

(05:43):
its nineteen million dollar profit, FIFA had a reserve of
one billion dollars, not a profit, a reserve. That's money
just sitting in the bank. And that is an incredible
financial transformation and it's a large lead the result of
Havlang and his vision for FIFA. Listen to soccer historians,

(06:05):
to horse Field explain football as we know it now
is because of Yah Havalange. He understood that there was
a first for football and a real desire to watch
it and to watch the World Cup. You know, he
saw the earning potential, he saw the corporate potential. You know,
he saw the product that FIFA walls. One positive thing

(06:30):
that could be said about the nineteen seventy four financial report,
it was also probably the last one that could truly
be believed. President Havalanche had a slightly different approach the bookkeeping,
preferring a more opaque style. During the sixteen years that
Havlang was president of the Brazilian Sports Federation known as CBD,

(06:52):
nearly seven million dollars went missing. When Brazil's own corrupt
military dictators discovered this gaping hole in ninety, they were irate,
which is ironic because at the same time, in the
mid nineteen seventies, the ruling junta were stripping Brazil of
money and resources at every turn. When Brazil's military leaders

(07:13):
wanted to arrest and charge Havlang with fraud and embezzlement,
Hovlanch always knew whose hands the shaken, whose hands to Greece.
He's an incredibly skilled and talented politician. If he had
not gone into spault, then I'm sure he would have
made an excellent politician. Instead, Brazil's military leaders removed Havalanche

(07:34):
from running the CBD, which he had continued to do
even after becoming FIFA's president in nineteen seventy four. Left
with only one job, Havalanch said his sights on turning
the World Cup into a commercial success. FIFA and or
Havalanch would become mind blowingly wealthy, and as FIFA began
to succeed, he made sure a sizeable portion of its

(07:57):
exploding profits ended up his and his friends pockets. Even
after the long flight, FIFA's new president looked impeccable as
he walked outside. Tall, muscular and with the broad shoulders
of a swimmer. He wore finely tailored suit and tie.

(08:20):
That was his dress code. Now you've noticed, I've often
mentioned how FIFA officials dressed their fondness for smart, expensive suits,
and that's because Havalanche believed the president should always look
the part. Really, anyone in power should look impressive. FIFA
might be full of crooks, but they were always well
dressed crooks. When Havalans arrived in Zurich shortly after his

(08:45):
ninety four election, the Brazilian was ready to get to work.
After all, he had made a lot of promises to
get elected, from increasing the number of teams in the
World Cup to four, to creating a youth tournament to
funding development programs in the Alpen world. Now it was
time to make good. However, standing there alone with his

(09:08):
luggage in his hand outside the Zerich airport on his
first trip to FIFA's headquarters since being elected president, Havalanche
looked more like a confused and lost traveler than a president.
Where was FIFA's General secretary, Helmut Kaiser or any one
or the other half dozen or so FIFA employees agreed him.
Havalanch fumed as he looked at his watch, wondering if

(09:30):
anyone was on their way. Presidents don't take taxis, Presidents
are met. To Havalanche, there was no more important office
in the world than his. He sees it as being
more powerful as the United Nations. He sees himself on
a path with you know, political presidents, politically as kings

(09:50):
and queens of monarchas you know, he sees himself and
he sees FIFA as this absolute monolith of an organization.
And it does become that Havalanche was frustrated, now late
and anxious to begin his work. Havlanche demanded from then
on someone from FIFA's staff would always be ready to

(10:10):
meet him at the airport, to act as his chauffeur
on a moment's notice. Years later, this would become an
official job responsibility of FIFA's General Secretary. It was the
first of many changes Havalanche would implement, but certainly not
the last. Havalanch would usher in a new way of
doing business at FIFA, so says historian John Sugden, who

(10:32):
interviewed Havalanche for his book FIFA and the contest for
World football who rules the people's game. Havalanche's style was
a messy mix of personal, political, and corporate interests. I
remember interviewing Havalanche along with my Collegallan Tomlinson in Cairo,
and I said to him, Mr Havlanch, what you consider

(10:54):
to be your greatest achievements And he said, when I
took over with FIFA, this is when st run the
organization from basically his back garden she had in Swiss
cottage in London. He said, I checked into the cash
box and he used that word, that phrase. I looked
at the cash box and there were twenty five dollars
in the cash box. And he said, now about to

(11:16):
leave FIFA, I can tell you that are twenty five
million dollars in that cash box. And he saw that
as his crowning achievements as a registered nonprofit making money,
that is, the pursuit of profit above all ounts. This
wasn't something that previous FIVA leaders really worried about. For
the old guard, it was beneath him. From Jewels Room

(11:37):
May to Stanley Rouse. They saw the organizing of the
World Cup as their primary responsibility, not the profiting from it.
When Avalans took over, aided and batted by dassela that
was superseded by a kind of entrepreneurial lath. The main
now was for if even to make money. You just

(12:01):
heard John Sugden referred to Horse Dassler, who would become
Havalanja's right hand man. Dassler new international sports were changing.
The German entrepreneur and son of the founder of the
sports apparel company Adidas, just wasn't sure yet how to
capitalize on the opportunities from television and corporate sponsorships. For months,

(12:22):
the aggressive and often manipulative businessman, who was known to
come to meetings bearing gifts like watches, had begged FIFA's
administrator Stanley Rouse and its no nonsense General secretary Helmet
Kaiser to agree to a partnership. For months, they ignored
Dassler's overtures. Dazzler's proposal to commercialize soccer was out of

(12:44):
step with Rouse's view of the game, and Rouse shunned
the growing commercial agenda. But now sitting across the table
from FIFA's new savvy president, Dassler saw a man he
could do business with. Chall Havevalanch had the smell of
dirty money and assorted election victory earlier in the year

(13:06):
only confirmed it for the Adidas executive. It was Havalanche's
first dinner as president, and it was an elaborate affair
who's who of soccer officials and international businessmen. Dass learned
Havalanche each had something the other wanted. Havalanch held the
rain to the biggest sporting events in the world, but

(13:26):
needed money to make good on the promises that got
him elected. Dassler had the money to invest, but he
needed access to FIFA's devoted fan base to make the
investment really pay off. They were both on the prow
that night, and they both got lucky. Several days later, Havalanche, Dassler,

(13:47):
and Patrick Nally, an English sports promoter and marketing executive,
met in private. Between the three of them sort of
have all all bases covered in terms of promotion, cockets
in kit and the keys essentially to FIFA's contracts. To
these men, soccer wasn't a sport, it wasn't a game.

(14:10):
Soccer was a product. The World Cup the ultimate product,
and over dinner, the threesome hatch the plan that would
remake world soccer in trigger a global sports sponsorship boom.
The Golden era gave way to an era of gold,
and that John Sugton said had consequences. Once the goal

(14:31):
started to pour in, there were legions more opportunities for corruption,
which is exactly what happened. The aluminum suitcase clanged against
the limousine's bumper. The chauffeur reached down with both hands

(14:53):
and heaved it into the vehicle's trunk. FIFA's president had
set out earlier in the day with an empty container,
but after only an hour of shopping, Jo Hovlang his
suitcase weighed a ton. Remember how Havalanche had arrived in
Zurich with suitcases full of immaculate suits. Now he was
leaving with bags literally stuffed with gold. The trip to

(15:18):
Zerik's gold dealers was part of a regular habit for
the Brazilian. He was known to spend upwards of thirty
thousand dollars on gold, bricks and jewelry to bring home
with him to Rio, Havalanche strolled through customs with his
diplomatic passport. Why did he have a diplomatic passport, I
don't know, but I would assume in soccer man Brazil,

(15:38):
the head of FIFA is given a diplomatic passport, and
no one in Brazil was going to stop a man
as powerful as Havalanche, and no one was going to
ask him where the loot came from. And like its president,
FIVA was now a wash in money, having signs an
eight million dollar worldwide deal with Coca Cola. This first

(16:00):
ever exclusive global sports agreement provided Havalanche with the resources
he needed to expand the World Cup and pay his debts.
And so the number of teams increased from sixteen to
twenty four by two and teams from Africa, Asia and
the South Pacific got the automatic spots they had demanded.

(16:21):
He's the one who created the World Cup as we
know it now as this global super event. He expands
the game and expands what FIFA can do. He expands
FIFA's income streams almost exponentially. Who's at the center of
this nascent sports sponsorship empire? Along with Havalanche, Patrick Nalley

(16:42):
and Horsed Assler, Together they created what has become the
ubiquitous sports marketing model and attracted dozens of multinational conglomerates
to fork over millions of dollars in exchange for exclusive
sponsorship opportunities by the logos of Coca Cola and Adidas
a door in nearly every inch of the World Cup games.

(17:04):
But even though the nineteen seventy eight tournament in Argentina
is considered one of the biggest embarrassments in FIFA's history,
as you'll hear later in the series, the controversies didn't
stop global brands from signing up to sponsor future tournaments.
By two Cannon, Fujifilm, and Gillette would all sign sponsorship
deals with FIFA, pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into

(17:27):
the sport. You know, you have these blue chip companies
sort of knocking FIFA's door down to be a part
of the World Cup, which never happened under Stanley Rouse
and would never have happened under Stanley Rouse because that
was everything that he thought football shouldn't be. Whereas Havalanche
saw that that was everything that football was going to

(17:48):
be and he needed to be at the forefront of
it rather than trying to catch up with it, and
he was. He was excellent at it. He's a very
mafia godfather type figure. But you can't you have to
acknowledge his skill and fall side and perception of what
was happening at the time. The bills and receipts sitting

(18:17):
in front of FIFA's General secretary came from every corner
of the globe. They were piling up, and they were
telling a story. Helmett Kaiser didn't want to hear. It
seemed every day a new purchase or expense or contract,
some dubious in nature, crossed Kaiser's desk. He knew FIVA's
Brazilian president was a profligate spender. Indeed, Avalanche was generous,

(18:39):
especially with other people's money, especially with FIFA's money. But
the receipts for things like designers Swiss watches and thousand
dollar dinners at Zurich Savoy Hotel were no laughing matter.
The bills were adding up, the Coca cola money was
running out. Kaiser had been at FIFA for twenty years

(19:00):
and he had never seen anything like havalanch Is spending.
Kaiser was a simple and dedicated administrator, a serious guy
whose focus was always on the good of the game.
Historians to horse Field said this about him, Halmat Kaiser
was a wonderful, wonderful General Secretary at FIFA, very open,
very honest. Kaiser was getting really concerned about the way

(19:24):
Havalanche did business throughout his reign. FIFA's president like to
brag he never took a salary, which is true, but
Havalanche knew his way around FIFA's expense account. In the
nineteen eighties, his personal expenses were north of a quarter
of a million dollars. By the time he left office,
in Hovlanch was billing FIFA a million dollars a year

(19:47):
in personal expenses, and Havalanch was negotiating contracts on his
own without telling Kaiser or the executive Committee. One deal
to make commemorative coins for the World Cup in Spain
was particularly problematic. FIFA already had an agreement in place
with a company to produce its swag, but Havlanch hired

(20:09):
a different company run by his friend to make the coins,
and the chronicism would only get worse. For the same
World Cup, FIFA had hired the European company Albinga to
provide insurance for the event, but Havalanch demanded the subcontract
of their business to Atlantica Boa Vista, a Brazilian insurance
company that. Get this, Havlanch was a director of and

(20:33):
had a direct financial interest in. Havalanch was lining his
own pockets with FIFA's money. Then there were the rumors
that sports marketing duo Peter Nalley and Horse Dassler had
paid Havalanche a million dollars as part of the World
Cup bidding process. It became such an open secret in
European soccer. Kaiser was forced to confront Havalanche. FIFA's president

(20:57):
erupted an anger at the accusation. Turns out it was
all true. By the end of FIFA's president and its
general secretary were barely speaking. Kaiser's days at FIFA were
numbered because he doesn't bend to Havalanges. Will set Blatcher
is brought in and set Black to replaces, and Havlane

(21:18):
needed someone he could trust, someone who viewed FIFA the
same way he did, as an opportunity to make themselves
and their friends rich, really really rich. And set Bladder
he fit the bill, set Black to just becomes this
protege who works on the Avalanche, watches, listens, is a

(21:40):
part of as an accomplice too. You know all the
things that happened. Losing his job as FIFA's General secretary
was only the first insult Kaiser would suffer at the
hands of sept bladder. Months later, Bladder would marry Kaiser's daughter.
It was said Kaiser refused to attend the wedding and

(22:00):
sat at home alone and cried. With Kaiser out and
Bladder in, FIFA was quickly becoming corruption incorporated. Like a
thief running from the scene of a crime, Diego Maradona

(22:21):
sprinted from the goal to the touch line. He waived
his teammates over to join him and celebrate. The furious
English players raced to confront the referee, who hesitated before
deciding to award the goal to Argentina. So what the
hell was happening? Moments before, Maradona, the five ft five

(22:41):
inch attacking midfielder, leapt up into the air in front
of a hundred and fifteen thousand sun scorched fans and
scored one of the World Cup's most infamous goals. Video
and photographic evidence would later show that Maradona's clinched hand,
not his head, punched the ball into the goal. That's

(23:03):
totally illegal. England's team was right to be furious, but
it didn't matter. Maradona's goal in the World Cup quarterfinals
knocked England out of the tournament. After the game, the
banded himself joked that the goal was scored a little
bit by the head of Maradona and a little bit
by the hand of God. It would come to be

(23:25):
known as the hand of God goal. The German sports
press would call it the scandal of the century. The
Germans were wrong. It wouldn't even be soccer's most scandalous
moment of the tournament. By the corruption within FIFA had metastasized.
Old soccer had seen nothing like it before. The men

(23:45):
ensuedes with their envelopes full of cash. They were now
the lords of soccer. To hide and to help their
criminal efforts, Havalanche, Bladder, and Dazzler created the International Sports
and Leisure Company. For two decades, I s L was
granted the exclusive contract to market the World Cup. I

(24:07):
s L also worked with an array of other sports organizations,
from professional tennis to the Olympics Committee, where how Lunch
was also a member until he was banned for accepting
illegal gifts and payments. However, it was FIFA's contracts that
were the driver of I s l's wealth and power. Dassler,
who had had a falling out with his old partner

(24:28):
Peter Nally, now split the take fifty fifty with the
Japanese advertising agency Densue. Global brands like Cannon, Coca Cola,
Adidas paid millions to I s L to use the
World Cup logo and their commercials, while TV networks coughed
up even larger sums Dicel to broadcast World Cup matches.

(24:48):
The World Cup, where Argentina want its second trophy, was
watched by more than ten billion eyeballs. Through I s L.
Dassler was able to purchase the marketing rights for a
mere thirty two million dollars and then sold those rights
for a remarkable one hundred and sixty million dollars profit.

(25:09):
With more cash for football, also came widespread reports of
financial wrongdoing by its top officials, including Havalanche. All that
money could easily have gone directly to FIFA, but instead
went to I s L. Why would FIFA sell the
rights to its premier events significantly below market value and
forfeit more than a hundred million dollars in revenue because

(25:33):
I s L would then make off the book payments
kickbacks to FIFA executives and other key members of the
global soccer community for more than two decades until it
collapsed and went bankrupt in two thousand and one. I
s L operated as a personal slush fund for Havalange
and FIFA, who rewarded friends and members of the FIFA

(25:53):
family around the globe. At the same time, Havalanche continued
his insurance scamp with his own company, Atlantica Bovista, once
again winning contracts to ensure the six World Cup for
millions of dollars. By the nineteen nineties, Havalanche a turn
FEVA from a stage and racially segregated sports federation into

(26:15):
a truly global conglomerate, but one created in his own image,
where bribery, secret dealmaking, cronyism, and nepotism were institutionalized. Oh
and so back to that tatterned and worn letter of

(26:37):
reference you heard about at the start of the episode,
the one from Jaohavlans to the mobster caster day Androgy.
It wasn't the only incriminating piece of evidence investigators found
that day. In and the same collection of papers, police
had found a list of people Castor had bribed, and
on the long list of names was FIFA's president. Next

(26:58):
to Havalanche is inch was written seventeen thousand, six hundred
and forty dollars for a v I P box at
a carnival event. By Havalanche's standards, it was a pretty
tiny amount, but it showed in black and white that
FIVA's president had a personal and financial relationship with one
of South America's most notorious gangsters. Havalanch was in Europe

(27:22):
at the time it was tipped off to the impending scandal.
Instead of confronting the accusations that he and Castor were friends,
Pavlanch used his position in FIFA to distract and find
new friends, announcing that it was time to expand the
World Cup tournament once again, this time from twenty four
to thirty two teams. With Havalanche facing re election in

(27:44):
a few months time and with European members signaling they
wanted a different president, the promise to expand the pool
of teams playing in the next World Cup not only
buried the cast scandal, but also guaranteed Hovlanche would get
another four yr term Ruben Williams. When the World Cup

(28:13):
landed in America and what had long been a waste
land for soccer, it arrived with a pizzazz that only
the combination of Las Vegas and Hollywood could deliver with
a giant blue Jeopardy like screen. The tournament's draw was
a star studded event, packed with entertainment legends like Barry Manilow,
Julio Iglasis, Fade Dunaway, and Dick Clark. Since it was

(28:37):
the nineties, they were dressed in baggy clothes with absurdly
large shoulder pads. On the stage, comedian Robin Williams yuked
it up with set bladder. Mr Blaow, It's so nice
to meet you after feeling it for so many years.
Nice time, Thank you very much. Thinking look the world's
largest keynote board. Now at the time to pull the

(29:01):
blue ball. The room was packed with some of the
most famous Americans in the world, who, like most ordinary Americans,
knew little to nothing about soccer or the World Cup.
The one soccer player Americans did know was conspicuously absent
from the stage. His real name is Edson Arantis dona Cemento.

(29:23):
The billions of soccer fans, he has known as Pile
Number ten, the most celebrated player in the history of
the game. In the nineteen fifties and sixties, the Brazilian
superstar Pale dominated the world Cup, winning three titles Tony
Field and then Haley came to American Could this be
another one? Hale Mark and dazzled sports fans playing for

(29:46):
the New York Cosmos part of the now defunct North
American Soccer Ley Away a wicked Shockley was soccer for
most Americans, so it was only fitting he's starting countless
commercials in the run up to the nine World Cup.
Joined Master carp and the legendary Peal in celebrating the

(30:08):
world's most spectacular sporting events the nineteen ninety four World Cup.
Pale had also been instrumental and helping his fellow Brazilian
shall Havevlanche win the FIFA presidency in nineteen seventy four.
So where was he? Why wasn't he part of the
nine World Cup draw in Las Vegas months earlier? Pale,

(30:32):
who was also an executive with a sports marketing company
in his native Brazil, said in an interview that a
member of the Brazilian Football Confederation had demanded a one
million dollar bribe if Pale wanted to get the broadcast
rights to the Brazilian Championship precursor to the World Cup.
When Paley refused to pay the contract, went to another firm.

(30:56):
The guy asking for the bribe, according to Pale, was
a Cardo to Shara, and who is Ricardo to Shara
none other than Jail Hablanche's son in law. In a
sport full of crooks and criminals, to Shara, was one
of the worst or best. Taking full advantage of his
family connection, he collected millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks.

(31:21):
Most of the payments came from I L and Jose
Avola's marketing firm, Traffic Group. Once was investigation found I
s L paid Havalanche and his son in law more
than thirteen million dollars in the nineties alone. The famed
Scottish investigative journalist Andrew Jennings of the BBC, who had

(31:42):
for decades hounded FIFA officials about allegations of corruption, estimated
I s L paid much much much more. The internal
I s O documents we've obtained show secret payments around
one hundred million dollars. We understand most of the bribes
went to a handful of FIFA bosses. Pelee had called

(32:05):
out Havalanch and his cronies, so Havlange caught out Pelee
the most well known soccer player in America and the world.
From FIFA's premier pre World Cup event set, Platter delicately
plays the gold FIFA Lifetime Service Medal around Jal Havalanch's neck.

(32:29):
Side by side, the two men smiled and laughed as
they stood together on the stage of FIFA's two thousand
and six World Congress in Munich, Germany. It was nearly
a decade after Havalanche had stepped down and Bladder assumed
the presidency, and the crowd of soccer officials cheered the
now honorary president. Havalanche's autocratic and corrupt rain had officially ended,

(32:53):
but in FIFA's world, he was still the godfather of
the organization. Even in retirement, he lorded over the sport
it It was a role he was happy to talk
and brag about. Hovlanch liked to remind journalists he had
been the head of FIFA for more than eight thousand
seven days, and yes, he actually counted out the days.

(33:15):
He talked about going to Russia twice at the invitation
of then President Boris Yelsen, and to Italy where he
met Pope John Paul the second three times. He always
liked to point out and that he was always welcomed
in Saudi Arabia by King Fod himself. Havalanche loved to
punctuate his stories by saying, do you think the head

(33:36):
of state would spare that much time for just anyone?
That's respect They've got their power. I've got mine, the
power of football, which is the greatest power there is.
They all bow at the feet of the FIFA president
because that's where the power is. Everybody wants to be
a pot of the World Cup. And with that great power,

(34:00):
Stu Horsfield explains, comes big trouble. Once you are deferent to,
you know, a leader or a president of a sporting organization,
then you just have absolute power. Book Obviously there comes
absolute corruption and absolute problems. What Hoblange never mentioned were
the sordid collection of criminals, dictators and mobsters he liked

(34:22):
to pole around with, and shortly after he received that
Lifetime Achievement award from step Ladder, his luck ran out.
In two thousand and ten, just days before FIFA was
set to vote on the locations of the two thousand
and eighteen and two thousand and twenty two World Cups,
the votes that led to the FBI investigation the BBC's

(34:43):
Andrew Jennings, as part of his ongoing investigation of FIFA,
revealed a list of bribes paid to soccer officials via
the sports marketing firm I s L. It's a secret
document which some people of FIFA hoped could be get
buried forever. Line by line, it details one hundred and

(35:05):
seventy five secret payments totaling tens of millions of dollars.
This is real money, massive kickbacks on world up contracts.
The first details of I s l's massive bribery scheme
had emerged when six of its managers were taking the
court in two thousand and eight. Jennings eventually got his
hands on the court documents, which showed a trail of payoffs,

(35:29):
although I have to point out they weren't considered criminal
acts in Switzerland at the time. One of the many
payments on jennings list was a one and a half
million dollar payment in to FIFA president Joo Havalanche. Step
Platter had approved it, but Bladder escaped punishment. Later, an
investigation by FIFA Zone Ethics Committee chairman Judge Hans Yacom

(35:52):
Eckert ruled in two thousand and thirteen that Flatter didn't
break in the ethics rules by approving the payment, but
Judge Eckert blasted Havalanche, who at this point was only
a liability to bladder in FIFA, saying the former president's
conduct in conjunction to the I s L scandal had
been morally and ethically reproachable. He ruled FIFA for more

(36:16):
than two decades, but Jow Avalanche's era at football's governing
body has ended in controversy. The Brazilians resigned from his
position as honorary president after being named in a report
as having received bribes. Although he'd been appointed honorary president
for life, Havalanch had to resign the title in two
thousand and thirteen in response to Judge Eckert's decision. For decades,

(36:40):
Havalanch had commanded unprecedented power and respect on the world stage,
but when he died in August of two thousand and sixteen,
the most quoted person about Hovlanch's life and career was
the man who did the most to uncover his corruption,
investigative journalist Andrew Jennings. Here's Jennings speaking to Sky News

(37:00):
and what he says, I think sums up Havalanche's legacy
as good as anything I've heard. Well, it was a
mixture of a shote politician and also he was a
very hardline mobster. Unless keep that word in mind, he
wasn't anything but Brazilian mobster who arrived at a week
FIFA in and did what he wants You. Now, you

(37:24):
could argue FIFA went from stag and pour to bombastic enrich,
but you cannot and should not ignore the direct link
between Stanley Rouse and Jauhavalanche. Colonialism and racism are the
seeds from which FIFA's corruption and criminality grew, taking advantage

(37:45):
of the powerless to enrich the powerful, which is absolutely
the opposite of what FIFA is supposed to stand for.
In the next few episodes, you'll hear how the Lords
of Soccer abused their positions to prop up and even
promote violent right wing dictators in Chile and Argentina, all

(38:05):
in the name of soccer. The Lords of Soccer al
FIFA Stole the Beautiful Game is an Inside Voices Media
production in conjunction with I Heart Radio. The series was
written and executive produced by Gary Scott and me Connor Powell.
Special thanks to Giselle Rossi for helping me with the

(38:27):
trickiest of the Brazilian names. If I screwed up, it's
on me, not her Logan he Tell and Katie mcmurran
provided the sound design with assistance from j C. Swaddock
and Jake Blue Note. Alec Cowen is our associate producer
and Jeffrey Katz was our story editor. Our fact checker
is Alexa O'Brien and thanks to Miles Gray, who produced

(38:49):
the series for I Heart Radio. If you have any
comments or questions, please reach out. You can find us
on Twitter. I'm at Connor M. Powell and Gary is
at Gary Robert Scott and if you have any stories
about FIFA, let us know. If you like what you hear,
please give us a shout out at the hashtag Lords

(39:10):
of Soccer